A New Reality
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Set after the episode "Blaze of Glory," as if the Gizmo's gang being shaken up by Kitty McHaig's destructive revenge against her father was not bad enough, Nick tells Ros and Ed about Jan, and the teams own private thoughts afterwards now their freelance days are over.
1. Chapter 1 Announcement

I don't own BUGS, although I wish I did; if I'd had my way then this series which was ahead of its time back in the 90s would have been much bigger and it would have lasted longer, and we would have found out what happened to Ros and Beckett.

That's all. On with the story.

Please let me know what you think.

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A New Reality.

Nick hung his head as his eyes watched as the woman he had learnt was codenamed "Jan" walk out of the hospital ward where Ed would be residing after nearly getting killed thanks to Kitty McHaig's bomb, his ears ringing with what she had said as she had left "_You weren't listening. The deal was for the team."_

Beckett was silent for a moment while his friends waited for him to explain what the hell that was all about, but he couldn't bring himself to come out and say it outright. He had been too busy remembering how Jan had caught him going through the Bureau's old files about the chemical weapons dump buried under the city, buried so well that even when McHaig was building his tunnel _no-one _had stuck up a red flag to alert the hardheaded builder what the danger was, and his insane and furious bitch of a daughter had been more interested in blowing up her father's empire without considering the long term risks of what could happen if any of those weapons did explode. It was only blind luck the whole lot hadn't exploded, though truthfully from where Nick was right now, he wished she had.

Nick glanced at his friends and winced inwardly when he took in their confused and worried expressions. _Shit! I knew it was going to be hard, but I wish I'd had more time…. _

"Well, there is one small thing I-I I might have forgotten to mention, I-um," he said, stammering like an idiot while hoping to delay the inevitable; he knew neither Ed nor Ros was going to like anything he was going to say.

Ed and Ros shared a look before they looked back at him, waiting for him to explain what was going on now, their new reality.

"Suddenly I'm _very worried," _Ed replied.

"Beckett, who was that woman? What did she mean by 'investment,' and what did said mean when she said the deal was for the team?" Ros demanded, tired of the runaround, though Nick could hardly blame her.

Nick sighed and looked at his two friends. "She wants us to work for her as part of a new bureau, to replace the one run by Roland," he said, seeing the flash of pain cross Ros's lovely face at the mention of Roland Blatty's name, though he couldn't blame her especially because of what that bastard Jean-Daniel had done with Cyberax. "When I went to check the files on the tunnels and the chemical weapons down there, she told me the Bureau was gone; there was nobody there to replace Roland and his people. She told me that they had tried to find people with the right knowledge and the right set of skills to, well, replace Roland and the others, no-one except…," Beckett couldn't complete the sentence, but Ed had no problem.

"No-one except…us?"

Nick nodded.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing," Ros shook her head, though Nick had no idea if it was denial or anger.

But suddenly Nick became angry and frustrated with Ros. Did she really think he would do something like this deliberately? Their team had never had an easy time with government groups in the past, except for the original Bureau of Weapons Technology, and that was only because Roland was more reasonable than Dent from the Hive or even Wence, so why would he suddenly get them signed up with someone whom they didn't even know?

"She blackmailed me, Ros," Nick snapped at her, frustrated that he was getting all the aggravation out of all this even though hadn't bothered to check if he was alone in that room with all that remained of the original bureau. "I managed to get past security. I managed to get her clerk to help me break into the classified files so I could figure out what we were dealing with, and she caught me and gave me a simple choice; either work for her or be in prison. When I didn't bother to listen, she said that would include you two as well. I couldn't let that happen. I'd already run into the woman before, she told me that we would benefit from working with her, but I said no then. Do you think I haven't forgotten all those times where we ran into those bastards like Wence or even Dent from the Hive, and all the others? No, I didn't."

"Calm down, Beckett," Ed's voice was still soft, and Nick closed his eyes to dial down his anger, realising Ed was probably in a lot of pain and it was an effort for him to speak at all, though considering what he had been through, it was incredible his body was still going at all. It was even more remarkable when you realised he had been injured before all this mess had begun.

Nick took a couple of deep breaths to control his anger towards Ros, angry and hurt that she would think he would just give in to someone like that woman without a moment's thought.

"So, we're now a part of a new bureau?" Ed clarified. He already knew the answer but he was just asking to make absolutely certain.

Nick nodded.

Ros looked away with a snort.

Nick glared at her. "Ros-," he tried to say, but she waved a hand at him.

"We _don't know anything _about what Roland did with the Bureau he was running!" Ros raised her voice up a notch so she was loud enough to be heard by her friends, but still keeping her voice a few decibels low so then a doctor or a nurse wouldn't come in and chide them for disturbing the peace. "We've only got a vague idea, and even if we did know what Roland was doing, I _am not working for them."_

"Ros-," Beckett tried to say, but Ros interrupted him, her dark eyes glaring at him furiously that he shut up.

"NO! You don't see it, do you?" Ros looked at him with such a lost expression that it hurt to look at it. Her lovely dark features were contorted with pain. "I have dozens of reasons for not wanting to work with the government, Nick, but I'd have thought even _you _would not want to get tangled up with another organisation like the Hive, and you remember _how _that went with SACROS."

Nick looked down. "I know, Ros, and that was one of the things that sprang to mind when Jan told me what she wanted from us. I didn't like working for the Hive at the best of times, considering what they did on a day to day basis. When I began working with you guys," he glanced at both Ed and Ros to see if they understood what he was getting at, and much to his relief they did, "it felt brilliant. But I couldn't let the pair of you go to prison."

"But this is how it starts, Nick," Ros walked over insistently. "One day she will ask, blackmail, beg, or whatever she did. And then later there will be governmental red tape."

With that, Ros turned her back and was about to leave the room. Nick watched her go with Ed. Both of them were aware she needed time to think through everything that had happened; it had been a day and a half, the discovery of a chemical weapons dump so secret no-one had known about it in time, and now this on top of Ed's hospitalisation.

"Ros, please," Nick pleaded, making Ros stop in her tracks although knowing Ros had just made a damn good point, "at least think about it."

Ros walked out.

She didn't say goodbye which showed just how upset she actually was.

* * *

**Author's Note. **

**1\. Wence was a pompous agent who tangled with the Gizmo's team twice, the last time was in the episode 'Newton's Run.'**

**2\. SACROS was a powerful satellite jamming system developed by the secret government organisation known as the Hive which was stolen by a corrupt director, who framed Nick Beckett. **


	2. Chapter 2 Ed

Tragically I don't own Bugs. I just own this.

Feedback would be nice.

* * *

A New Reality.

Visiting hours were long since over and both Nick and Ros had been forced to leave the hospital, leaving Ed behind to cope with the hospital staff even if the nurses were a bonus despite the agony he was in following Kitty's insanity.

When he had met Kitty he had recognised her for what she was instantly; a person trying really really hard to live a life without being happy about the way they had been brought up, and considering the hints she had dropped about how she and her twin brother Christopher had been raised, and the reasons behind Christopher's tragic death recently, Ed privately couldn't blame Kitty for going off the deep end the way she had since Andrew McHaig didn't strike Ed as the type of father to offer affectionate love freely.

Kitty had tried to bring down her father's empire while using her knowledge and ingenuity and appearing as incredibly innocent to the point no-one had even known it was her behind that dynamite-in-the-truck trick until it was too late, but the way she was willing to kill hundreds of people when she had to tried to blow up those chemical weapons…

Ed had seen the kind of cold, calculating attitude Kitty had shown against her father many times in the past ever since he had joined Ros and Nick and gone freelance, though there was no doubt in his mind those days were over, and nothing Ros said was going to stop that.

The good old days were gone, and Kitty McHaig had joined the ranks of those people Ed, Ros, and Nick had spent the last two years dealing with; from Cottrell, Jean-Daniel, Easterhaus, Zander and Sally during that mess with the phodex, and all the others.

Kitty had been a ticking time bomb for so long, Ed was amazed the woman hadn't tried something like this ages ago, but the loss of her brother had caused the rage she had accumulated over the years towards her father to explode when she could easily have brought the McHaig empire to its knees sooner.

Ed sighed as he shifted himself around in his hospital bed, cringing and groaning in pain, screwing up his eyes as he felt his limbs and muscles ache in protest as he tried to make himself comfortable - his body was in incredibly rough shape after barely managing to get away from the battle-wagon Kitty had built for her 'shows,' but he'd been sore all over after crashing while testing out that new bike for his friends - and he closed his eyes in relief when the aching died down when he was still again.

Reopening his eyes he looked around the room he had to himself. He was relieved he was on his own, while he wished Ros or Beckett could be there with him, keep him company and someone to speak to under different circumstances, in this instance he was just thankful he was on his own.

The last 48 hours hadn't just been draining for him and his friends, but the idea someone had _blackmailed _Beckett in order to keep them out of jail in the hopes they'd work for her…

Okay, admittedly Ed couldn't think of another choice Beckett could have made, but unlike Ros who was fighting this tooth and nail every inch of the way, Ed wasn't going to bother.

What would be the point?

Yeah, they could fight this Jan for a bit, but in the long run, Ed doubted it would work out.

He knew they had no choice in the matter, and even if they refused now how long would it take before that woman who had blackmailed Beckett, this _Jan _(honestly, what was it about these people, and these stupid codenames? He had always thought the characters from _James Bond _were obsessed with such things, but real life took the cake) came after them and forced the issue?

Ros might be a strong woman, but Ed wondered just what sort of things would be applied to her to make her compliant? Ed didn't want to say.

But truthfully, now his friends were gone and he was on his own and he had some time to think, Ed couldn't honestly find anything wrong with the thought of doing what he and his friends had been doing for the last two years now, only with a safety net attached.

Okay, while he didn't like the thought of working for somebody else again since he had become accustomed to the freelancer lifestyle, Ed was not blind. He could see the advantages to the forming a new Bureau and him and his friends being a part of it instead of being on the peripheral like they had when Roland and the original bureau had been around.

In any case…. after what had just happened, the injuries he had endured, Ed had been knocked off-kilter. He was going to have to have plates - _plates _\- surgically inserted into his body, and he had no idea how long it would take for him to adapt to that. While he knew he would adapt if there was one thing Ed valued, it was his athletic prowess. The thought of losing it… it only made him hate Kitty McHaig even more and made him hope they found her and made her pay for what she had done.

But realistically… Ed was just _amazed _he and his friends had lasted as long as they had without getting killed. Ed honestly had no idea if it was just his injuries that were speaking, but everything inside of him was yelling that the golden days where they would go from one job to the next, exposing corrupt industrial big boys who wanted to try their hands at getting rich, or criminals who played a massive and carefully thought out scheme in order to get what they wanted was now over.

But Ed knew Ros had a point about losing their independence. If they worked for someone like Jan, they would likely be bogged down by the sort of things that had never affected them in the past, and while Ed himself dreaded the thought of answering for something big and frustrating, he couldn't see any way of getting out of it.

And besides Ed had doubts, despite the assurances of Ros who believed they could track down Kitty and stop her from going on another rampage - which would likely happen since the gloves were now off as far as the bitch was concerned - with their usual methods, they'd be able to find her.

Kitty may be mad, but she was not stupid.

She would have gone to ground, and she would have set up backdoors so she could slip out without anyone knowing anything different.

Ros was _delusional _if she thought they could find her without Jan's help.

They would likely need help, and so they would all become a part of the new Bureau anyway, so there was no point in fighting it.

As he lay there, Ed couldn't help but feel the irony here; if he had not been badly injured, then he would likely have _point blank refused _to go anywhere near this new Bureau, just like Ros instead of thinking it was the best option.

But the truth was… Ed had just simply lost his taste for doing what they were doing without any kind of safety net. And it had nothing to do with the conflicts which came from idiots who believed the Gizmo's team weren't needed; when they had been independents they had regularly come to blows with idiots who thought they knew best on the inside only for it to blow up in their faces when it was too late. Ed didn't have a problem with that, it was just a part of their line of work, and he knew how to handle them.

In any case, with the backing of Jan and the new Bureau she was founding out of the mess left behind by Jean-Daniel, which had wiped out the original Bureau, they wouldn't have that problem anymore.

The thought of not dealing with self-important idiots who felt they knew how to handle the crisis on hand when in fact they didn't and would easily fold up when faced by something like the Bureau was compelling since dealing with them was aggravating.

But truthfully, when he spoke to Beckett and asked how long it would be before they had to join, Ed would wonder if his friend would ask him why he was seemingly looking forward to joining the new Bureau.

Beckett and Ros would probably just assume the reasons were related to Kitty, but they weren't although she had a large chunk of it.

No.

What had recently happened with Kitty… it was just the start of a larger problem.

Ed's reasons for going along with this went back a lot further. He had become increasingly aware, and he was sure the others had felt the same way, of how out of their depth they had become when facing problems that were bigger than themselves without a safety net to back them up. Okay, at the time he had not thought it was anything to be worried about; he and his friends had still patted themselves on the back after a good but difficult time, pleased they had gotten through it okay - that mess with the space mission had been one of the most gruelling examples and seemed indomitable, when you compared it with Dr Kroll's plan to cause a famine in Europe with that viroid…

And yet, at the same time….

They'd come close to being killed. More than once.

Ed may have been a daredevil, and even he knew his boastings bordered on arrogance, but even he was not cocky and self-assured to believe they could cope for long without becoming out of their depth.

And they had a few times although they'd managed to get through it with their ingenuity and what seemed like a huge amount of sheer dumb luck.

Luck never lasted forever, Ed knew that.

He had known from the moment he crashed that bike when he was testing it for his pals before the mess with Kitty had happened that his luck was up; Ed had performed many daredevil stunts with motorbikes before, and he had suffered his own fair share of injuries over the years, but the recent crash was the worst.

Beckett had no idea just how prophetic he was when he had said one day he would have an accident he wouldn't be able to walk away from automatically.

Trouble was Beckett had no idea how right he was, and he had no idea it would actually be happening soon.

He had just become increasingly worried about their own safety as time had passed. He and his friends had been locked up, chained up, handcuffed, threatened with knives, bombs, guns…but looking back, Ed knew the one time they had needed help, better resources, had come during that colossal mess caused by Jean-Daniel when the French criminal genius was manipulating Cyberax, and Ros had almost died as a result.

Ed remembered how Ros had become increasingly paranoid and suspicious about what was going on at the time, why he and Nick were trying to stop her learning too much about what had happened to Roland and the others while trying to keep the malignant AI from burning her brain out.

He and Beckett had been out of their depth, and their attempts at distracting Ros while making sure anything that would give her a clue to what had happened to her and Roland and the others.

At the time Ed had wished he and Beckett had a better way of handling situations like that, and while he doubted this new Bureau would help if another AI would affect their lives, he would just be glad to have something to back them up.

Ed winced as he moved again as he tried to get settled. While he knew he was willing to work for this new Bureau, he wanted to get some rest.


	3. Chapter 3 Nick

A New Reality.

As he walked out of Ed's hospital room, Nick Beckett was actually happy with how things had gone; sure Ed was still hospitalised after that mess with Kitty McHaig, Ros was still refusing to accept the _invitation _to join the new Bureau which was being set up, and Jan was still pressuring him to bring her on board while she made promises to help them track Kitty down. Honestly, he had no idea how much longer he could go. He was running out of excuses, and sooner or later Jans' patience would run out.

Nick was just relieved Ed was onboard because it meant he didn't need to have arguments with two different people; that was a surprise, he had expected _Ed _to be the big problem.

Ed was one of the most independently minded people Nick knew, and he didn't like being tied down to a job which was one of the reasons why he had joined Nick and Ros in the first place after that mess with the Hive as he'd delivered Valentine and SACROS, although he had been doing what he loved to do.

When Nick had told his friends about what Jan was offering, although it was hardly a choice since she had made it _abundantly clear _what would happen if they refused, he had been expecting both of them to be up in arms, but Ed had surprised him, although Nick knew if the circumstances were very different and he hadn't been seriously injured then Ed would have raised all kinds of grief over the offer. He would probably have refused as well, considering his own past with the Hive and the aggro he'd sometimes had, but the current financial mess he was in at the moment was one of the reasons behind his joining, that and the way he was afraid if he said no, Jan would use that as an excuse to lock him and his friends in prison. She could probably do it easily. And there would be nothing he or his friends could do about it, no matter how much good they had done over the last few years.

Ed was onboard, so that was one battle he didn't need to deal with.

_But Ros…_

Nick closed his eyes in frustration when he thought about the woman. It had only been a short time since Kitty had tried to demolish - literally - both her father's building empire and a good chunk of London with those chemical weapons from that weapons dump buried under London so well it hadn't even set off red flags in the right places, but he had needed to learn the hard way to avoid even _mentioning _the Bureau. He had received enough headaches from both Ros and Jan since he had taken the woman's offer.

Nick knew Ros well enough to know she didn't trust the type of people whom Roland had been friends with. And he didn't blame her; they had encountered more than a few people who lived in the same world as Roland over the years, and so the thought of working full-time with one was not a pleasant one.

Yeah, Roland and the other Bureau staff had been okay, and they had become close to them, but that was different. Roland and his bureau had worked with him and his friends on and off dozens of times over the last couple of years, but Nick could understand the reasoning behind Ros's _reluctance _if you could call it that.

When he had worked at the Hive during that mess with SACROS, Nick had read through Ros's file, and he knew she'd done a few things that were questionable.

She'd hacked computers, learnt about different things although she was thankfully not one of those annoying conspiracy theorists who believed that everything that happened was a conspiracy or something stupid like that. She'd tapped phones illegally, but she had all sorts of things, but while she had avoided the types of organisations like the Bureau and the Hive before she had met him and Ed and worked with them both to stop Cottrell, that didn't mean she wanted to work with them.

The only problem was while he could not work out what she hoped to achieve by constantly saying "_No, I'm not going to join, they can't touch me" _he understood where she came from, though whether or not she understood it was pointless and it wasn't going to work acting defiant, Nick didn't know.

All Ros had said so far was if they joined the Bureau then they would lose their freedom to take jobs and push aside those which probably wouldn't be listed as _relevant to national interest_, and Beckett was inclined to agree with her there since the Bureau of Weapons Technology run by Roland Blatty had rarely joined with the Gizmo's gang for anything.

Truthfully Nick had little idea of what the Bureau did; yeah, they tested advanced technology, namely weapons and defence technology, but what else did they do?

They surely didn't spend all of their time doing that? Yeah, there was that mess with Jean-Daniel's scheme to steal Red Mercury in one of his insane plans, but what else did they do? Yes, they also investigated organisations like Eileen's who developed terrifying and really ingenious weapons and had developed viruses which were tailored to the DNA of a target and bombs with voice-activated detonators, but that was as far as their knowledge went.

Ros didn't want to lose their independence and Nick understood that only too well, and so did Ed because Ros believed if they helped smaller organisations then it would be beneficial in the long run like it was beneficial to work with bigger companies that would be held up with more interest by people like Jan.

In a way Ros' reasons for avoiding Jan and the prospect of joining the new Bureau made a lot of sense, because Nick didn't really want to spend God alone knew how many years of his life working for Jan or the Bureau for much the same reasons, because he had liked the old freedoms much like Ros and probably Ed did.

He had liked being able to work with a small group and solving problems after that mess with the Hive, although they'd often stumbled into FSD operations much like they had done with Newton, and so the thought of getting involved with Wence _again_ was not something that appealed to Nick very much, so there was that advantage of working for the new Bureau.

But as he leaned against the wall, Nick closed his eyes and thought about his own feelings about working for this Jan woman and for this new Bureau. He hadn't even _wanted _to get involved with another organisation that ran on lines similar to the Hive even if the job had been good once or twice despite the rigorous security which made the methodology of the Gestapo look like the Germans weren't even trying to cross the line, but he had only accepted the _offer _because he had been backed into a corner and he had been so shaken by the thought of being chained down again in the sort of work he had put past him a long time ago.

While he didn't know what kind of work the Bureau of Weapons had done under Roland Blatty despite knowing they monitored and controlled the development of new weapons and defence technology, Nick also didn't know what kind of work Jan would put him, Ros and Ed, through. He had no doubt they'd be responsible for overseeing weapons technology much like Roland had, and investigating organisations who had crossed the line. Nick closed his eyes and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He knew he would need to get back to the Bureau and supervise the work in putting the place together while Jan tried to make him go after Ros although Nick had no intention of it.

He knew the best approach was to wait her out, but would it work now?


	4. Chapter 4 Ros

A New Reality.

The new flat Channing had bought for her to denote her new wealth was so large it felt so alien compared to her old place, and it just felt so…so cold because she had not really spent a lot of her time here to furnish it.

Matters didn't help that she _hadn't even wanted the place in the first place_ since she had been comfortable with what she'd originally had, but Channing had a desire to shower her with gifts and trinkets, although truly Ros had no idea really what he wanted to get out of it in return.

Yeah, Channing may have been sweet even if he truly wasn't her type, and she found some of his manner annoying, but he was still her business partner even if she wished he would just mind his own business about her living space.

But no. Channing wouldn't hear anything of it, especially after he had seen her last flat. In truth, she had been rather insulted with Channing's attitude since she had liked her old place, but she had caved in especially since the businessman had promised her a much larger workspace where she could work on her inventions. The message was clear even if it actually insulted Ros' intelligence - Channing wanted her to work all the time on her inventions so they could both be rich. Her life didn't work like that, and if she joined the Bureau then it would be hard for her to work on her inventions at all.

Ros had agreed to live in the place, even if she knew Channing was trying to buy her, but in truth, work had been coming in slowly for her and the gang and the deal she had made had really been a help while Ed and Beckett were both distracted.

Now Ros was sitting by herself, wishing Channing had gotten her a place that came with a smaller living room so then she wouldn't be feeling like she was sitting in the middle of a castle while she tried to think of what had been happening.

Everything had been going so well, but now, in less than 24 hours, it had only taken a few short hours before the foundations of her perfect world had fallen apart.

Not only was Ed hospitalised after being injured during the mess with Kitty McHaig, but Beckett had done a deal to get them involved with a new Bureau.

Ros had spent the last few days deliberately going out of her way to avoid Beckett while spending time with Ed while he recovered in the hospital though it wasn't hard.

Nick had his _new Bureau _to concentrate on.

No, that was unfair, and as she sat on the couch next to the still unwrapped cushions which had come with the couch Ros mentally chided herself. She knew she was being unfair, but she just so ambushed by everything that was going on.

It was bad enough Ed was hospitalised, but for Beckett to make a deal like this and only finding out about it at the last minute…

Ros didn't want to work for a new Bureau. In fact, she didn't want to work for any kind of spy agency like she was a female version of James Bond. Yeah, she had never had any problem with working with Roland once or twice, but that was different; she wasn't a part of the Bureau or any kind of organisation like it.

She knew if they joined something like that then they would be buckled down with Whitehall infighting; she could see it now if anything went wrong then they could be pushed from one enquiry to the next, being accused of all kinds of treachery.

_But Beckett did say they would have access to more work…_

Annoyed that her own brain was betraying her although she had to accept the logic, Ros thought about Beckett's points. Yeah. They'd have access to more work, but the problem with _that_ was they would be forced to work with the people whom _Jan _believed to be worth their attention. Ros knew that would be companies and organisations that were more important for the national interest than anything else.

On top of that, they would lose their independence.

Ros hated working for other people. It was different with their line of work simply because she knew they didn't have much authority over her and her work, but Ros had always had problems with working for other people despite her intellect and her professional attitude. Some bosses were just so mundane, and some had no common sense.

In this case…

Ros had no idea what Jan was like, but she had the feeling that if Beckett hadn't agreed then she would have simply thrown him, her and Ed into prison and threw away the key and walked off without a backwards glance. The idea of working for someone like Jan filled her with dread because it would be all 'secrets acts' and other bits of crap like that.

She didn't want to work for that type of person, but Ros knew, logically, she had no choice. There was no doubt in her mind if she didn't come to heel like a dog, then Jan would go out of her way to track her down and press-gang her into working for the Bureau. So she had no way out, she couldn't win.

Ros leaned back in her seat, breathing in softly while she thought about her friends. Nick may not have any choice with this, but Ed, the one person she had expected to be with her, _was going along with it. _When Ros had confronted him about it when she discovered his decision, he had looked at her with pained eyes.

"_I would have agreed with you a long time ago, Ros," _Ed had said to her as he lay stiffly on the hospital bed. Ros had listened and watched him sympathetically, knowing he must have been in agony. "_God knows I would have shouted at Beckett, argued with him over signing us up for the Bureau-"_

"_Then why didn't you?" _Ros had asked him.

Ed had just stared at her with his pained eyes. He seemed to have aged greatly after everything he had been through. "_Ros - I've taken a good, long, and hard look at everything that's happened to us; we've been shot at, bombs have blown up around us, we've blundered into dozens of operations, and you had an Artificial Intelligence parasite that jumped the species barrier into your head…"_

Ros had shuddered at the reminder of what Jean-Daniel had done with Cyberax, and how she was still mobile and yet others like Roland weren't. Ooh, that was a low blow.

"_Don't tell me this is all about them-!" _Ros had glared at Ed, but he glared back at her, more fiercely, his anger or annoyance, she couldn't tell what he was feeling, but she could tell that whatever it was, he was suddenly feeling it intensely.

"_No, it's not. I don't __**care **__what this Jan has promised, but Ros, I've lost my taste for doing this sort of thing without a safety net. Suppose we can get out of this mess, or even better Jan never made the arrangement with Beckett? What would happen if we get shot at?" _Ed challenged her, though his voice was incredibly soft as he looked at her sympathetically, knowing precisely how she was feeling. _"Look, I don't want to lose our independence; I don't like working under someone, mostly because some of the bosses I've had in the past are bastards. But let's face facts - we don't have any choice; these are not the type of people you want to say no to. And besides, …we'll be able to catch up with Kitty before she does any more damage. And let's face facts; we're going to be kept busy. Looking at the bright side, we'll have loads of work opportunities. I've been getting bored recently, and that's led to some of my injuries. "_

Ros closed her eyes as she finished going over what Ed had said to her. He had some good points, she had to admit; yeah, before all of this she and her friends had been approached by Jan they'd had a lull with work and for someone who loved living life to the edge, Ros knew such things were horrifying for Ed who was a daredevil and adrenaline junkie.

But she had to admit his primary good point was how whenever one of them was injured, or put into a mess like Ros herself had when Cyberax had been placed into her brain, they'd had no-one but themselves to fall back on. Even then it hadn't been enough, but they'd managed in the end even if they hadn't been able to help Roland and the other unfortunates who'd had the Cyberax program shoved into their minds.

Even to this day, Ros had _no idea _what the French criminal genius had been thinking when he had unleashed the program. Surely it occurred to him if Cyberax went active without anything to contain it, it would corrupt and destroy _everything. _And in a world which was becoming more and more computer-dependent, that was incredibly dangerous.

One by one different program would come under the control of Cyberax, and then it would turn on the human race and unleash a terrible war the human race could not hope to win.

It was funny, but when Ros had first suggested to Nick and Ed about working together and going freelance since they had worked so well with each other during that SACROS mess, she had never imagined she would be brought into an organisation like the Bureau.

Ros sighed and she stood up to pour some wine for herself - yet another one of Channing's extravagant gifts - and wondered to herself just how long she had to wait before Jan became tired and forced her to join.

She knew, either way, she wouldn't have any choice in the matter. Somehow she was going to be brought into the Bureau.


End file.
